IO::Select will let you do a timed-wait for input.

This will avoid your reader hanging indefinitely, if for what ever reason you don't receive expected transmissions in full.

Haven't tested it here but the usage should be something like: 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use common::sense;
use IO::Socket;
use IO::Select;

# establish connection
my $socket = IO::Socket::UNIX->new(
     Peer    => '/path/to/socket.file.sock',
    );

my $sel = IO::Select->new();
$sel->add($socket);

# issue command and read answer
my $some_command = 'foo';
print $socket "$some_command\n";
my $html = "<html>". sockread($sel,$socket). "</html>";

sub sockread {
    my $sel = shift;
    my $socket = shift;
    my $content;
    my $TimeOut = 0.5; #sec to wait

    while ($sel->can_read($TimeOut) && (my $line=<$socket>)){
        $content .= $line;
        last if $line =~ /\[ End of /i;         # vlc's rc is a bit in
+consistent, some end like this
        last if $line =~ / returned 0 /i;       # others like this
    }
    return $content;
}

[download]
Update: Corrected $TimeOut from ms to seconds.

In reply to Re: Chunked unix socket file reading - how? by snoopy
in thread Chunked unix socket file reading - how? by Anonymous Monk

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